If any of you have been following me on social media or on this blog for any length of time, you know that for the last 2 years Adam and I have been going back and forth between Connecticut and Colorado. He owned a house in Colorado Springs and we had the apartment here in CT and in between weddings, we would spend our days remodeling our CO home. We listed it this summer to sell and closed on it a few weeks ago. All along the plan has been to move to Colorado. In fact, on our very first date Adam told me that was his plan and if I wasn’t willing to eventually move there, we wouldn’t be having a second date. He was pretty cute and had a great smile, so I figured “What the heck? I can totally move out west!”  And thus began the multi-year journey of trying to make our way out there. As glamorous as it may have looked on the outside, spending 2-3 weeks in CT and then 2-3 weeks in CO and constantly sitting on airplanes and in airports was beginning to take a toll on us. Simply put, we were exhausted. At some point the beginning of this year we both agreed that by December 31 we needed to have a decision made on where we were going to live and settle in for a while. We both planned on it being in Colorado, but we knew that in order for that to happen we both needed to make sure we had jobs out there. So Adam began applying to different companies and I set out to build my photography business out there. Try as we may, the cards were just not in our favor this time around and we both found ourselves getting frustrated. The life we wanted was in Colorado – the stunning mountains, fresh air, open spaces. But everything else was in Connecticut – family, our jobs, a church we loved, a lot of our friends. At some point in April I finally accepted that, as much as I had tried really hard, I was having a difficult time with the idea of moving to Colorado. I love it there, of that there is no question. But everything that is important in life to me is here in CT. But I promised Adam on that first date that I would follow him out west and I wanted to uphold that promise. I also knew that once we got there and settled in, I would make friends and it would become a second home to me. But, still, something inside me kept feeling like now was not the right time. Knowing this was Adam’s biggest dream, and one that I didn’t want to hold him back from or crush, I simply began praying. Praying that God would change my heart. Praying that God would change Adam’s if it was His will. Praying for peace. Praying for open doors and opportunities. And in doing that I found a new level of trust in God that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Something that I can’t quite put words on, except to say that there was an unmistakable and overwhelming assurance that God had it all under control.

At some point in July, right before we left for Europe, Adam said one night over dinner “What if we just stayed in Connecticut for another 5 or so years and worked our butts off at our jobs, saved, and then when we move out west we could have some more flexibility with jobs?”. It took all of me to not drop my jaw to the floor and say “Who are you and what have you done with my husband? Because my husband swore he would never stay in CT”. I smiled and told him that I would fully support that idea, but that HE needed to be the one to really believe in it because this was his dream that we were talking about putting on hold. Over the following weeks and months we began casually looking at houses in CT “just to see what’s out there” with no real intention of purchasing any time soon. After looking online we met with a realtor and began looking at some houses in person and were, generally speaking, underwhelmed by all of them. This one needed a new kitchen. That one had green carpets. The next one had no space for a studio. And the list continued on and on with each house we saw. At one point in our online browsing, Adam pulled up a listing for a home and said “Look at this one. It’s under contract, but imagine if this were available”. I didn’t pay much attention to it because it was under deposit, but he brought that house up a couple more times over the next few weeks. At one point we even drove by it just because he wanted to see it in person. We liked it but, again, didn’t pay much thought to it because it was under contract already. As fate would have it, the weeks carried on and we began looking a little more seriously at homes in all different parts of CT, and after the Colorado house had sold, Adam pulled up Zillow and saw that the home he had his eye on all along had come back on the market. We were both skeptical as to why it would have fallen through after being under contract three times, but we asked our realtor to go see it. Two days later we walked into the house and, almost immediately, we were blown away. Around every corner was one more thing on our   “must have” or “really want” lists. Hardwood floors throughout. Stunning natural light. Open floor plan. INCREDIBLE kitchen. Separate entrance for a studio. One by one we mentally checked off the items that every other home we looked at only had a few of. We left the house one sunny Sunday afternoon and had nothing but good things to say about the house. The only downside, if you can even consider a downside, was that it was much bigger than the other homes we were looking at….but strangely it was priced within our range and needed almost no work, whereas ALL of the other homes would’ve needed significant work. We chewed on it for a day and asked our realtor to go back again to see it. As I said to Adam a few weeks later, on our first walkthrough my heart said “Yes!” (happens often), but on our second walkthrough my brain said “You’d be foolish not to”. The catch was that we had 72 hours to make a decision, otherwise the sellers had renters flying up to rent it starting that same weekend. As I mentioned before, we didn’t intend on purchasing this soon at all, so making a decision this big in 72 hours was no small feat. I spent the next two days on the phone with people who have lived in that town, trying to get a feel of what it was like living there. I spent hours upon hours scouring the internet on school ratings and crime rates. I wanted to be able to present Adam with as much info as we both would need in order to make a wise decision. Ultimately, we both decided that proceeding with an offer was what seemed to be the right decision for us. Within hours our offer was accepted and we were soon under contract! Since then it has been a whirlwind of events – tellings our parents that we are staying in CT (we had kept it secret until then, just in case the plan changed again), having all of our stuff shipped from CO to CT, allllll the paperwork that comes with purchasing a home, and trying our best to maintain an excellent level of customer service with our clients during what is the busiest time of year for us. We are more exhausted now than we were going back and forth to Colorado, but the difference this time is that we are SO EXCITED about moving into this home and finally settling into life for the first time since we’ve known each other. I could keep rambling on, but then I wouldn’t have any information left to tell you when I give you a full tour of our new home. So, for now, until we actually close on the house and begin moving in, I will leave you with an image of the outside of our new home. As I write this post and show you this image I am so overwhelmed with gratitude. Never in my life did I think I would live in a house this beautiful or so perfectly suited for us. It’s a dream house. The outside may not seem like anything special but, to us, it’s perfect. And the inside is to die for. But you’ll have to wait a couple weeks for the grand tour.